Our Planetary System

Shalimar: Chapter One

Shalimar
is a planet in a binary star system. It is one planet of at least
ten that orbit around the larger of two stars, Heynar and Morg.

Heynar is a class G star. Morg is a red
dwarf, and much smaller and dimmer than Heynar. Morg's influence
causes periodic disturbances of the space debris surrounding Heynar's
planetary system. This results in collisions between the planets
and wandering asteroids. These collisions are more frequent, and
more serious, than the ones that we are accustomed to on earth.
This has grave consequences for evolving life forms.

Heynar
has at least ten planets. The innermost one, Snarf, is small,
rocky, and too hot to allow life forms to visit it. The next planet
out, Mardo, is also inhospitable, a little larger than Snarf,
and, again, hot and rocky, with no atmosphere. Further from the
sun, on the inner edge of the life zone, there are twin planets
that orbit a common center of mass, Jaif and Karlo. These planets
have atmospheres and at least some water, but have not yet been
explored.

Shalimar is near the middle of the life
zone, and its axis is perpendicular to the plane of its orbit
around the sun. As a result of this it has no seasons as we know
them.
It has about one and a half times the mass of the earth, and so
its gravitational force is one and a half earth's gravity. It
has ample water: much of it is covered by shallow seas. Shalimar
has three moons, Kona, Seer, and Joppet. Kona is about a twelfth
the mass of Shalimar, and may have been part of Shalimar at one
time. It has a stable, nearly circular orbit around Shalimar.
Joppet and Seer are much smaller, and have eccentric elliptical
orbits around Shalimar. They may have been pieces of space debris
that were captured by Shalimar's gravitational field.

Beyond Shalimar there are three larger
gas planets, Iho, Sandar, and Huff. These planets have rings and
each has a number of moons of varying sizes. We are continuing
to study these planets.

Beyond Huff there appear to be two smaller
planets, Snide and Hamly. Both of them appear to be made mainly
of frozen gases and rock. To date, these planets have not yet
been studied.